This Too Shall Pass
by themindofmine
Summary: Cole Kitrick's upcoming trial stresses the whole team. Matt and Cody try to find a way to make sure Jess doesn't have to testify. Cutler makes plans to make his new relationship permenent and Jess and Derek try to find a nanny so Jess can get back to holding the Rangers together.
1. Chapter 1

This Too Shall Pass

Chapter One

Matt Hawkes looked at his sister rocking her new born daughter in the rocking chair his mother had rocked them all in. Jess was as natural a parent as she was a Ranger. Things had been calm on the California side of their mountain for a few days and Matt thanked God for that.

"What is it that you're trying hard to avoid telling me?" Jess looked up and her brown eyes met a storm brewing in his blue ones.

"I wanted to protect you." Matt never wanted anything to hurt his family but somehow it never worked out that way.

"You have, for a whole lot of years Matt. Kitrick?" Cole Kitrick was an evil man. He passed himself off as a law man for a lot of years. He even gained the trust of the US government. Now he was in jail for trying to kill fellow officers and trafficking drugs. The testimony of Matt and some others could put the man away for the rest of his life and then some.

"They need you to testify." Jess looked down at her month old daughters. Sierra was by far the needier of her two babies. She knew when her parents were settled and comfortable and then she would let herself be known. Skylar on the other hand watched the world go by with a smile.

"When?"

"We all have to be there the beginning of next week."

"All of us?" Jess knew it had been a slow summer but if they went it would leave the mountain with only a handful of rangers to patrol it.

"The DA hopes to get a witness list to me before the weekend so we can maybe go in shifts. Jess I didn't want you to have leave the girls for this."

"We knew it was going to end up like this."

"It shouldn't end up like this Jess. There is a million other ways to put Cole away."

"And most of them are not feasible or the witnesses are dead." She stood and laid her daughter in the small portable crib with her sleeping sister. "I'm alive and I can be witness to his abuse of power."

"So can JT."

"JT wasn't around all the time." Jess crossed her arms over her chest and looked out into the bright July day.

"Jess…is there something you never told us?" She turned and looked at her brother. Taking a deep breath Jess wondered if she should have just kept quiet. "Jess?"

"A few months before I headed back home Cole called me into his office and told me that he needed me do some work for the Pentagon. It would require me to spend months out of the country. I asked him if JT was coming with me and he said that he was off on another assignment and that he would be my go to."

"What was the assignment?"

"I don't know. I told him that I didn't want to leave US soil after the botched up Texas job." Jess went back to the window.

"He was okay with that?"

"I think he was planning on killing me then. A few weeks later I started getting sick. Whatever he was sending me to do, he was planning on me never coming home again. I know that now. It wasn't so clear back then, now everything he ever said or did leads to him trying to hurt me to get to you."

"I didn't know he had so much hatred toward me Jess or I would never ever have let you take that job." Matt knew that Cole was a jack ass but he never believe the man to be a cold blooded killer.

"Matt, don't blame yourself. It might of started out about hurting you but he knew that I had his number and that JT and I would only follow him so far before we realized what kind of person he'd become." Jess went to him and hugged him. "He hurt all of us and now all of us are going to make the bastard pay."

"He's going to bring into light your trip to bring Cody home."

"Matt, if they want to bring up past sins, let them. I know what I did was wrong and I was willing to pay for it then and I'm willing to pay for it now." She looked at her babies, asleep and so angelic. "Even if it means spending some time in jail."

"Jess…" She smiled and looked at her brother.

"Let's just see what happens Matt. For once in my life I'm going to look ahead and say it's all going to work out." Matt knew that Jess would stay strong through whatever comes their way. "We have enough to get him put away for the rest of his life Matt." She sounded so confident and sure of herself that even he believed it would all be okay.

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"How is she holding up?" JT McCullen looked up from his paperwork when Matt walked in.

"Better than I thought." Matt sat down across from his friend. "I hope she's as strong as she says she is."

"Your little sister is a lot of things, but a liar isn't one of them." JT sat back and looked at his friend. "I was right there Matt and I couldn't protect her so don't go beating yourself up because there was nothing you could have done."

"I could have stopped her from going after that job back then." Matt felt guilty that he never told her not to take the job with Kitrick.

"She needed to go Matt, so she could come back and be the person she is today."

"As many times as it's been said JT, I just can't believe that what she went through all those years was worth it. The man tried to kill her. More than once if her suspicions are right." Matt knew that JT had always been there for his sister and he wouldn't stop now.

"Jess's priorities have changed. She has always had a reason to take Kitrick down but now its life or death so to speak." JT stood. "Jess can do this Matt."

"I know. I got a schedule to rearrange once the DA gets me the witness list."

"Mia said she'd answer phones and do some filing if you need her."

"I may take her up on that. I don't want to schedule Derek if I don't have to. The girls need one parent at their beck and call. I also made sure we had accesses to the states jet to get Jess back here as soon as she's done testifying."

"Gotta love a man with connections." JT looked at his friend. "It'll all work out Matt."

"I hope so my friend. I can't deal with any more crap." Just then his brother Cody walked into the room. "Speaking of crap."

"Hey…I resent that." He put a file in front of his brother. "I got this from my friend who shall remain nameless." Matt opened the file.

"And shall remain shameless. Cody, these are the defenses witness lists."

"All bets are off Matt. They're dragging Jess into this." The younger Hawkes wasn't keeping his anger in check like his brother. The storm brewing in his blue eyes was something Matt was all too familiar with.

"We need to do this by the book Cody or it could go south really fast."

"Matt, this is Jess. She'll tear Kitrick apart bare handed if she gets the chance but I don't even want her to have the face the bastard." Matt knew Cody was thinking the same thing they all had been thinking. If she testifies against Kitrick he was going to bring up Afghanistan.

"It's been six years Matt." Mark Sheppard came in just then. He looked at the three men standing in the office and shook his head.

"There's a stress induced heart attack waiting to happen in this room." He handed Matt a file.

"It's about time you come visit your old stomping grounds." Matt looked at the file. It has his sister's name on it. He opened it. "I forgot was a fricken' genius you are." Matt smiled.

"I'm just a doctor, worried about his patient." Matt handed the file to Cody.

"A do not travel order?"

"She just had a difficult birth. No long drives…no airplane rides for at least another two weeks." JT smiled at his friends.

"In two weeks my dad can have all the papers in order saying the rescue was legit." He picked up his phone and dialed his Coronal father.

"Do you think he'll do it?"

"He'd move mountains for your old man Matt." JT went to make sure his father was on the same page as the Hawkes. Matt looked at his friend who had been with them from the start.

"Thanks Shep."

"Anything for you and your family. How's the wife and kids?" The older man smiled. "I can't believe I'm asking the bachelor of the century that."

"Look who's talking. Don't you have a nurse on every floor?"

"Every department." He said his good -byes and headed out. Cody looked at his brother. "Do you think this is going to work?"

"It'll work Cody. And we can do it without the witness list." Matt handed it to his brother. "Burn it."

"I'm on it." Cody left the room and Matt ran his hands through his hair. The trial was going to take a lot out of his family. Hopefully they could rally around each other and make Kitrick go away for good.

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"You need to sleep when they're sleeping Jess." Derek Morgan stood behind his wife and put his hands on her shoulders.

"I know." She leaned against him. "They are both so beautiful."

"You expected something less from the two of us?" He chuckled.

"No." She closed her eyes. "I can face a man with a gun, a mountain full of snow and a damn grizzly chasing me but I can't wrap myself around the reality that they're both here."

"They're real baby." Derek hugged his wife close. "And they are sleeping. Jess, please get some rest. If Matt can't get them to postpone your appearance you're going to need to be rested up."

"Kitrick could die in prison before this trial actually starts Derek."

"Let's hope so. Matt said their calling witnesses starting next week."

"I don't know if I'll be the first or the last but I will testify against him Derek."

"I know you will Jess. He needs to pay for what he did to you and all the others." Derek Morgan had been a profiler long enough to know that Cole Kitrick was not going down quietly.

"The team and my brothers don't think I can do it without some sort of breakdown."

"They know you can do it Jess, they just don't want you to have leave the girls a month after giving birth. No one does, especially me. Those people just want what's best for you and those babies. So do I."

"I know." She kissed her husband. "Wake me when they need me." Jess headed to the settee and curled up. She was asleep before Derek turned around. Smiling, he took the blanket from the back of the chair and covered her. He was worried. His wife was a strong woman, stronger than any women he had known, but she had a breaking point. In the last year she had seen some really bad things come her way but facing Cole Kitrick could be her undoing. Quietly he left the room and his three girls to nap in peace. He needed to talk to Jess's brothers and get perspective on how things would go down. Derek was never a planner by nature but years fighting crime and the justice system made him a little more willing to have a plan if the need arose.


	2. Chapter 2

This Too Shall Pass

Chapter Two

"She won't back down." Matt took the coffee cup that his brother in law handed him.

"I know. We have another set of nanny's to interview tomorrow, so hopefully we can find one before she has to testify." Derek looked at the two men sitting at his kitchen table. They were as different as day and night but they had one thing in common. They loved his wife just as much as he did and they were willing to do anything to protect her. Cody looked into his cup and shook his head.

"No one is going to be good enough. Hell, it took Sarah three months just to find a babysitter to watch Ava when we went out to dinner." Derek sat down with the two men.

"She's finally sleeping a little here and there. In the girls room but at least she's sleeping." Matt looked at the younger man. He was one of the best criminal profilers in the US but he could see the two new additions had him questioning his skills at much of anything lately.

"You'll find someone." Taking a deep breath Matt put out on the table what they were all thinking. "Jess isn't going to rest till Kitrick is behind bars. We postponed her testimony three weeks with Shep's letter. She's not going to like it but I think it's the best way."

"Can they hold off that long?" Derek wasn't sure what all they had on the ex-secret service agent.

"The prosecution witness list is long and disguised. As is the defense list." Matt handed the paper to Derek.

"There is ex president and governors on this list, why the hell does Jess even have to testify if they have this much crap on the guy?" Matt knew his friends frustration. He felt it to. If the prosecution has so much evidence against Kitrick, why do they need Jess to put her life on hold to go to Colorado?

"I'm calling the State's Attorney in the morning and do all I can convince her that Jess doesn't need to testify."

"I want to testify." Three heads snapped up to see the topic of their conversation standing in the arch way, holding Sierra.

"Jess…" Cody stood and went to his sister. She handed him the little girl and went to the fridge. "We just want to figure out a way so you don't have to leave the girls." He sounded like he was twelve again, begging her not to tell his dad about taking Cooper into town to see Matt.

"I have family and friends who I trust unconditionally with my children. I have a husband who is capable of holding the fort down if I'm gone for a day or two." She looked at the three men as she put two bottles in the bottle warmer. "We can make this work." Leaving the room, she left her brothers and husband. Cody looked down at his niece and her big brown eyes lit up.

"Talk some sense in to her Sierra." He smiled when the little girl's brow furrowed. "You look like Grandpa Jesse when you do that." The timer for the bottle beeped and Cody expertly took both bottles out of the warmer and handed one to his sister who was coming back with Skylar.

"Don't tell her that. She loves her Grandpa Jesse." Jess sat next to her husband at the table.

"They didn't wake up screaming?" Derek looked at his wife.

"Nope. They woke up smiling and content. I changed them and they heard their uncle's voices and started begging to come downstairs." She handed Skylar to Matt. "Let me testify and get it over with." They looked at her. "Please, let me get this over with so I can get back to a somewhat normal life."

"Baby, our life is never going to be normal again." Derek answered. They all laughed. Jess knew she had to do this. Kitrick all but destroyed her back then. If it hadn't been for her family she might have just given up. Matt pushing her during the Ranger training had brought her back to them.

"Kitrick needs to pay for everyone he hurt. Even Letta deserves some kind of justice." The woman kidnapped her and nearly gotten the whole team killed but she was a human, a heartless one but one none the less. Jess looked at the three of the most important men her life. All she needed was her father, Cutler and JT to walk in, making their views known.

"Okay, we make sure at least two of us can go with you, when the time comes. If not me and Cody, JT or Cutler." Matt looked soulfully in his coffee cup.

"You really think that will scare Kitrick?" Jess stood and ruffled Cody's hair and went to the refrigerator and got out a bottle of juice. She turned and leaned against the counter. She looked twelve. He knew she was a woman with a husband and kids but she would always be his little sister. Cody stood. He handed his niece to her father and stood in front of her.

"No, but it would make me feel a whole lot better. I spent a whole lot of years getting used to having you around."

"Thanks, I think." She smiled. "I think I can handle testifying alone." Derek shook his head.

"You're not going to Colorado without one of us Cutler or JT." Jess looked at her husband.

"Why?"

"Because those men would kill and die for you Jess. If I can't be there with you, I want one of them to be." Jess looked at the three men in front of her. She knew Derek was right. Her brothers and two best friends would do anything including die for her if the need arose. Swallowing hard she nodded and turned, leaving them before she showed a weakness they all knew she had.

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James Cutler was a proud man. He had lived through some serious crap in his life. His father had been a monster and his mother had sat idly by and let her children be terrorized. He saw things when he was in the Army that he had never shared with anyone…even Jess. James Cutler lived his life for himself for a lot of years. Now he wanted more. He was a little old to start playing house with Randa. He had to make an honest woman out of her soon. Six weeks of her life before coming here was a blank, lost somewhere in the recesses of her mind. Till she got those weeks back he knew she wouldn't say yes.

"Jimmy?" He looked up from his desk to see Jess. She looked really good for someone who gave birth to twins three weeks ago.

"Hey. I thought I wouldn't be seeing you around here for another few weeks yet." He came around the desk and hugged his best friend.

"Grandma and Grandpa have the girls and Derek is on a run with Matt so I thought I would come see what I'm missing." She looked into her friends blue eyes. "Something wrong with that?"

"No. It's just strange because I was just thinking about you and there you were."

"Good thoughts I hope."

"Always." He smiled.

"I know better." Jess sat down and Cutler went back to his chair behind the desk. "How's Randa?"

"Good. She's with Hart and Kelly up at the Ranger Station restocking." Jess looked around the main office of the station. Three weeks away and she missed this time most of all. When everyone was out on calls and she was alone.

"What's going on with you Jimmy? You haven't called or come by."

"You just had a near death experience while giving birth to twins Jess. I thought maybe you might need a little time with your family."

"You are my family Jimmy. Just as much as Matt and Cody." She leaned back and looked at him. "Talk to me."

"I'm going to ask Randa to marry me." Jess smiled. "Don't look so smug." He looked down and smiled himself. "I just want to make sure she's ready."

"Those six weeks are still not coming to her?"

"No and I know she wants to find out what happened to her during that time before she settles down." Cutler looked at the women he thought would be the one he'd spend the rest of his life with or pining over. They had over fifteen years of on and off together. "I don't want to mess things up with her like I did with you Jess."

"You didn't mess things up Jimmy. We both weren't ready. We were meant to be friends, nothing more."

"I didn't believe that till you found Derek." Cutler looked down at his boots. "I didn't want to believe it then but now…I know that the two of you were meant to be."

"I got pregnant Jimmy, he had to marry me." He looked up at her. She really believed that. He could see it in her eyes. The last year of her life had been a damn rollercoaster of emotion and he knew she wasn't always sure of her choices but he hadn't believed she had thought the only reason Derek Morgan had married her was because of the girls.

"He loved you from the moment he set foot on this mountain Jess. Babies or no babies, he was going to marry you." He stood up and went to the window. "I didn't want to believe it at first either but you my friend fell in love with him then too."

"I never knew love could hit you that hard and fast. I mean you…you were my everything for a very long time."

"The years we were together meant the world to me. You taught me how to love Jess. My parents…well you know they…"

"I know. If it wasn't for the Hawkes…I would have been in the same boat." Jess stood and went to stand next to him. "I think we turned out pretty damn well, considering." She touched his arm. Cutler turned and looked at her. "I don't regret one minute of our time together. We had some pretty amazing times over the last twenty years and I want to have twenty more. I want our kids to grow up together and know you'll still be there to pull my ass back when I'm on the edge of stupidity."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." He took her in his arms and hugged her. "All I ever wanted is for you to be happy Jess."

"That's all I wanted for you too." Jess pushed herself out of the embrace and touched her friends cheek.

"Don't ever think you don't deserve anything but the best." She kissed his cheek and left him standing there without a doubt in his mind that she was right. Randa was the best thing that happened to him in a very long time and he wasn't going to risk losing her like he lost Jess.


	3. Chapter 3

This Too Shall Pass

Chapter Three

JT McCullen lived in a lot of places over the years. His father joined the Army before he had been born and moved him and his brothers on an average of every eighteen months. He didn't want that for his daughter. McKenzie was going to know exactly where home was. He had gone to college for a year in Sacramento and met Matt Hawkes. The man had convinced him that the Sierra's were a little bit of heaven on earth. When McKenzie was born he knew he had to find a stable home for her and his girlfriend Mia.

"Jasper?" He looked up from his drink and saw Jess standing next to him. He never knew how a woman could be so cat like.

"I thought I'd be seeing you today." Jess Hawkes had been his partner and friend for years before he decided to move to Lake Tahoe. She had saved his ass more times than he wanted to admit. She ordered a cup of tea from the waitress and sat back and looked at him.

"How's Mia liking the DA's office?"

"Good. She likes it." He looked at his friend. "She told me to tell you if you need any help with the girls or need a sitter, just call."

"I can't believe I didn't see how close the two of you had gotten." The waitress set down Jess's tea and left.

"You were a little distracted back then. The last few years…well we hadn't done much but exchange phone calls now and then."

"We're never going to let that happen again." She looked at her friend. "Kitrick is going to try to burn us both."

"We have nothing to hide Jess. You and I did our jobs. We followed orders. Hell we got kidnapped, shot and stabbed following his orders. He can't hurt us now or ever again." Jess saw the anger in her friend's eyes. JT was never an angry man but when he was mad, you stayed out of his way.

"He can make a lot of waves. Cutler coming in to Mexico, me going into Afghanistan are the big things he can nail us on. There is a whole lotta little white infractions we've been a party to the last few years."

"Every cop has bent an occasional rule Jess. We never planted evidence or lied on the stand. Kitrick practically sent Cutler to get us and well my dad has your back on the whole unauthorized military mission thing. He and I talk a little more these days since I gave him the cutest granddaughter ever." Jess smiled.

"As much as I love my little angles, I can't wait to get back to work."

"How's the Great Nanny Hunt of 2012 going?"

"You would think that one of the most desirable places in California would have a bigger pool of young people looking for a career is home child care." Jess looked down at her tea. "Mom says she wants to hire someone full time to run the diner and she would take care of the girls, Kyler and Kylie. I love my parents but I think those four would send them over the edge."

"Your parents are capable of watching four children. They raised the High Mountain Rangers." Jess smiled.

"I need you with me when I go to Colorado." She looked at him. "Matt is testifying before me but you're not set to testify."

"I turned in a deposition right after I dropped Kitrick off in Colorado. I didn't plan on coming back to the states again." JT looked at his friend. "He messed me up Jess. Way more than I thought he did. I believed in him and the things we had done over the years and when he left us in Mexico…I wanted to quit then but I couldn't leave you. Then when I got shot in Miami I wanted to take you and Mia and head for the hills but I was too messed up." Jess looked at her friend.

"Why didn't I see it?"

"Because you were just as messed up as me." He smiled. "He's going to pay for the things he's done." In all her years of knowing Jasper Thomas McCullen this was the first time she had ever seen a storm in his eyes like the ones her brothers had when they got angry. Jess had almost started to believe the man never got mad.

"Together we'll take him down." She reached over and laid her hand on his. "Cole Kitrick will never hurt anyone, ever again."

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Jesse Hawkes sat at his kitchen table, coffee in hand. It had been a rollercoaster year for his family but with the birth of Jess's twins, things were looking up. Then Kitrick's trial came up. He always knew that Cole Kitrick was going to be trouble. The back door opened and his youngest son came into the kitchen.

"Hey Pops."

"Cody." The younger man grabbed a cup and poured himself some coffee turned and warmed up his fathers. He hadn't seen much of his children the last few days. He knew they were all working on ways to get Jess from having to testify against Kitrick.

"Mom at the diner?"

"Yeah, she's training the new manager this week." Jesse looked at his younger son. There wasn't anything the boy wouldn't do for his sister or she wouldn't do for him. "How is everyone holding up?"

"Better than I hoped. Jess wants to get it over with but Matt thinks it would be better if she waited."

"Where is she?"

"The office. The North Face rep was in town and he would only talk to little sister. I swear that man gives her stuff just because she calls him 'hun'."

"Calling him hun has gotten you and your team some mighty fine equipment over the years."

"Yeah, she's kinda amazing when it comes to getting us what we need. Matt didn't tell her that he's tacking on a set of jackets for her on his dime. I swear that girl goes through jackets like no one else I know."

"There was a time when it took everything we could do to get that girl to put on a jacket." Jesse sat back and looked at his son. "She's going to be okay Cody." He knew his son was worried about Jess. They all were. The last year had been tough on all of them but his youngest child had shouldered the brunt of it. But he and Jackie had raised all their children to be strong, independent adults.

"I know. I just worry that she takes on too much." Cody sat back and looked at his father. "She's a mom now. Her priorities are going to be different."

"You really think that? Because the Jess I know adapts to whatever situation she's thrown into and makes the best of it. Good or bad."

"When is it going to be too much for her to handle dad? I mean she almost lost it when those memories of her birth parents came flooding back."

"It didn't help that she was pregnant at the time and her hormones were all messed up and she didn't know why, Cody. You know more than anyone what your sister is capable of." The old man knew what he was talking about. Jess risked everything for her brother, more than once.

"Kitrick is going away, with or without Jess, dad."

"Your sister needs closure son. She couldn't get it with Lee and Hale. Jess needs this to get on with the rest of her life." Cody knew his dad was right. He didn't like it but he knew that Jess wasn't going to let the chance to tell her story pass by.

"I know your right. I just don't want her to hurt anymore."

"She isn't Cody. She has a family of her own and two brothers would do anything to keep them safe. And she's got a mother and father who always wanted her to be part of their family, no matter what."

"You would of taken Lee and Hale on back then if you knew what you know now, wouldn't you?"

"Damn straight." Jesse looked at his son. "I should of question him more when he dropped her off all those summers. I was just so happy she was with us, I thought if I rocked the boat with them, they would stop sending her." Cody didn't remember much about the McCormicks. Hale barley left the car when they dropped her off or picked her up.

"I lose sleep at night thinking about what it was like for her as a child. All alone at boarding school for six years, not knowing if your family was going to come and get you, hoping summer would come."

"You would of never known by look on her face when she got here in June that the last nine months had been so hard on her." Jesse looked into his sons eyes. "She's gonna be okay Cody."

"I know." He stood and rinsed his coffee cup in the sink. "I just worry about her more than I should because of all we've been though." He turned and looked at his dad. "I just want her to be happy. To remember all the good stuff and forget the bad,"

"The bad stuff makes us who we are too. Do you think if I didn't move up that mountain all those years ago we would be the family we are today?" Cody never thought much about those years of solitude he and his father had shared. Matt and Jess had been the ones to make Jesse see that the base of the mountain is just as good as half way up it.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I better get to work before my boss sends out a search party."

"Rumor has it they can find anybody." Jesse smiled.

"Yeah, they are the best. Later, Pops." Cody left Jesse alone with his thoughts. He decided he was going to visit his grandchildren.


End file.
